A jam based Dear Prudence was performed by the Grateful Dead in March 1982. Dear Prudence was performed nearly 200 times by the Jerry Garcia Band between June 1979 and April 1995. The song has also been performed by Furthur, Ratdog and the Weir/Robinson/Greene Trio.

Though credited as usual to Lennon and McCartney the song was written by John Lennon. Lennon explained the idea for the song as follows. Mia and Prudence Farrow travelled to Boston to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at some point in 1968. There was concern that Prudence was staying in her room meditating/studying excessively and Lennon was selected to visit her and encourage her to come out more. Hence Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play, Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day. The White Album version of the song was recorded in August 1968.